Following the initial stages of the uprising, the Libyan government retook most towns in the west of the country, leaving Misrata the only major city under rebel control in Tripolitania.

[39][40] During the siege, the city saw very heavy fighting, came under daily assaults and shelling, and was at times cut off from its seaport, leaving no escape route for Misrata's inhabitants.

[51] On 3 March, two Libyan Red Crescent medics were wounded by loyalist fire while trying to retrieve the body of a man killed near a government base three days earlier.

[58] The attack was led by the Khamis Brigade, which had won the First Battle of Zawiya two days earlier, but their advance came to a halt when 32 soldiers, one of them reportedly a general, broke off from the rest of the force and joined the rebels in the city.

On 18 March a cease-fire was announced by the government, following the United Nations Security council resolution on authorisation for military intervention by foreign countries; the attack on Misrata, however, continued for at least another four hours.

[66] The same day, Tomahawk cruise missiles launched by US and British naval vessels struck a government-held air base and military academy outside the city, causing an undetermined amount of damage.

[78] Gaddafi's forces left the main hospital, then returned in the evening with tanks and artillery weapons, and began bombarding the surrounding area.

[86] On 26 March, Gaddafi's forces launched a large-scale attack on Misrata, bombarding the city with mortars and tanks and allegedly sending in foreign mercenaries.

[95] Later, a rebel source confirmed that loyalist troops had gained control of part of the city, effectively dividing Misrata into government-held and rebel-held areas.

[97] CNN's Nic Robertson reported that the streets of Misrata were largely empty, except for about 100 pro-Gaddafi supporters demonstrating, and a strong military presence.

[98][non-primary source needed][failed verification] Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught said that the furthest point in Misrata that she and other international journalists were taken to was the south side of Tripoli Street, one and a half miles from the city's center, from where gunfire could be heard.

[105] Gaddafi forces were using artillery to bombard Misrata, according to a rebel spokesman, who further stated that 20 civilians had been killed the previous day when houses were hit by shells.

Subsequently, Gaddafi's forces in Jfara fired Grad missiles into the Al Qalaa neighborhood, destroying civilian structures and causing residents to flee.

[117] On 5 April, Interior Minister and Major General Abdul Fatah Younis, who had defected to the rebels, criticized NATO, saying it was not doing enough while civilians were dying every day.

At the same time, rebels said, they had cut off government snipers in the city center from the rest of their forces by barricading Tripoli Street with large shipping containers filled with sand and stone.

Later in the day, loyalist troops conducted another attack, this time attempting to take full control of the Nakl al-Theqeel road, which links central Misrata to its port on the northeastern outskirts of the city.

Libyan state TV showed a pro-Gaddafi rally on the outskirts of the city,[135] and six people were killed during the day by shelling, including a child.

[138] On 13 April, rebels claimed to have pushed Gaddafi's forces on the western front 10 km back to Abu Ruwaya, although these reports couldn't be verified due to the lack of journalists.

[143] From dawn to dusk government troops pounded the city with tanks, artillery, Grad rockets, mortars, and, allegedly, cluster bombs.

[145] The loyalists battled their way to the city center and took control of it, while the rebels clung to the port area and set up checkpoints around one neighborhood where a net of government snipers was positioned.

[148] Heavy shelling continued on 16 April, with rockets hitting the industrial area close to the port killing six people, including three rebels, and wounding more than 48.

[151] During the day's fighting, the rebels managed to evict loyalist forces from the shoe factory, from which they had been bombarding residential areas in the city, and later burned it down so that it couldn't be used again by government troops.

They attempted to expand their territory around a central produce market,[152] and claimed that they had destroyed several tanks and pushed Gaddafi's forces from Tripoli Street to the Al Gharyan neighborhood in southern Misrata, leaving most of the nearby main road in rebel hands.

On 18 April, the European Union was contemplating the deployment of up to 1,000 troops for a non-combat ground mission in Misrata, and was reportedly waiting for a non-resolution UN approval.

[158] Two photojournalists, Tim Hetherington (known for co-directing the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo) and Chris Hondros, were killed in a mortar attack on 20 April while photographing rebel soldiers close to the front lines.

"The bombing has caused many casualties among Libyans and people of other nationalities waiting for evacuation," Gemal Salem, a spokesman for the rebels, told Reuters.

On 13 May, according to the opposition, all of Misrata proper was under rebel control, with clashes still occurring in the southern suburb of Hizam, the southeastern farmland of Zameena, and west of Dafniya.

[221][222] On 9 September, the NTC health minister said that at least 2,000 rebels and civilians had been killed in the Misrata area since the war began, with at least 900 injuries that had resulted in loss of limbs.

[224] After the NATO-enforced no-fly zone was established, an international effort was underway to evacuate 14,000 stranded migrants and hundreds of rebels and civilians wounded in the fighting.

[233] Later during the day, the Greek ferry the Ionian Spirit also arrived in Benghazi with 1,000 people, including 239 Libyan civilians, and the rest migrants, mostly from Niger.